Mahjong Compendium

Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Babcock rules › Regional US house rules › NMJL card › American mah jongg

American mah jongg

152 tiles, jokers 1961

Sources

Sources

The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.

  1. Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html

    chart’s note Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.

    Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style and 44 more · bibliography #1

  2. Mahjong Wiki. "American Overview." mahjong.wikidot.com. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:american-overview

    chart’s note Cited as the source for individual nodes in the chart's node table. Carries no bibliography or per-claim citations of its own; see the appendix on tracing the wiki.

    Also cited on: NMJL card · bibliography #49

  3. MahjongCompare. "Mahjong History and Origin." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    https://mahjongcompare.com/history

    chart’s note NMJL founders (Cecil, Meyerson, Jacobs, Potter), the 1937 Essex House meeting, and jokers entering the official rules in 1961.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, Regional US house rules, NMJL card · bibliography #14

  4. Grokipedia. "American Mahjong." supporting checked 2026-09-18

    https://grokipedia.com/page/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Jokers appearing in sets from the 1940s; the NMJL mandate from the 1960-61 season.

    Also cited on: Regional US house rules, NMJL card · bibliography #17

  5. Wikipedia. "Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong

    AI summary The main article's regional-variations section, which describes most branches of this tree independently of the chart's own sources.

    Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Chinese classical, Hong Kong old style, Taiwanese style, Singapore style, Filipino style and 7 more · bibliography #54

  6. Wikipedia. "American Mahjong." canonical

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mahjong

    chart’s note Racks, jokers, the Charleston, and the NMJL / AMJA annual card.

    Also cited on: Babcock rules, Regional US house rules, NMJL card, AMJA card · bibliography #13

AI-generated

Analysis

Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.

Assessment

Confidence
documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited
Evidence
corroborated two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

SourceTilesHandFlowersScoringPayout
[1]152 (8 jokers added to a regular Chinese set)13, out on 14used in the hand; they can be punged and kongedlook it up on the card, available from NMJL and/or AMJAwinner only
[2]15213—score card—
  • [1] about 52 special hands, which players must make; no free-form hands; the card changes every year; has the Charleston. Sloperama notes the make-up of the American set fluctuated in the 1940s, 50s and 60s
  • [2] no dead wall
  • [3] joker tiles were added to the official rules in 1961
  • [4] jokers appear in sets from the 1940s, with the NMJL mandate from the 1960-61 season
  • [5] uses joker tiles, the Charleston, melds of five or more tiles, treats bonus tiles as honours and eschews both the chow and the notion of a standard hand; permitted hands change annually through a card that must be purchased from one of the sponsoring bodies. Notes that purists claim this makes it a separate game

Reading it

Five sources. Tiles, hand and the annual card are agreed; Wikipedia adds the features that separate this branch structurally from every other node in the tree, melds of five or more and no chow at all. The joker date is consistent across sources at 1961 or the 1960-61 season. Nothing here records what is printed on any card, which is deliberate.

In the tree

Descends from NMJL card, as the source chart draws it.

Descends into

← back to the tree